


SHIELD's Little Surprise - Part 7 - Stark Tower, Chapter 1

by SHIELDAgentMD



Series: SHIELD's Little Surprise [9]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Adoption, Corporal Punishment, F/F, Familial Roles, Gen, Spanking, Stark Tower, Team as Family, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark is not a 'kid-person'
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 06:46:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5617342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHIELDAgentMD/pseuds/SHIELDAgentMD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a fanfic based upon the incredible television series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  This is the 1st installment of the seventh chapter in a series of stories that takes place not long after the Season 2 finale.  These stories are meant to be fun, sweet, thought-provoking and heart-warming.  They *may* or may not contain scenes of corporal discipline (spanking), possibly of a minor child.  This is *not* a ‘condonement’ of spanking children in any way, and any such scene will be depicted in a very loving, non-abusive manner.  If this may still be a trigger for you, I encourage you not to read this series.</p><p>Every character referred to is directly from the show/Marvel Universe, and I hold NO claim to the characters or the plotlines of the show that many of my stories are based on.  This particular story also makes references to images and scenes from the “Iron Man” films, and from other Marvel movies.</p><p>Post Skye’s adoption, the team takes a weekend trip to Tony Stark’s Tower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	SHIELD's Little Surprise - Part 7 - Stark Tower, Chapter 1

**Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.**

**S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Little Surprise**

**Part 7 – Stark Tower, Chapter 1**

 

This is a fanfic based upon the incredible television series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  This is the 1st installment of the seventh chapter in a series of stories that takes place not long after the Season 2 finale.  These stories are meant to be fun, sweet, thought-provoking and heart-warming.  They *may* or may not contain scenes of corporal discipline (spanking), possibly of a minor child.  This is *not* a ‘condonement’ of spanking children in any way, and any such scene will be depicted in a very loving, non-abusive manner.  If this may still be a trigger for you, I encourage you not to read this series.

Every character referred to is directly from the show/Marvel Universe, and I hold NO claim to the characters or the plotlines of the show that many of my stories are based on.  I *highly* recommend watching the first two seasons of episodes before reading these stories, as many references to events in the episodes will be made, and therefore, better understood.   **WARNING:  These stories will contain spoilers from the show, up until the Season 2 finale.**   (Minus what happened to Jemma Simmons there, because I refused to accept that!  ;)  ) 

This particular story also makes references to images and scenes from the “Iron Man” films, and from other Marvel movies.  These depictions will be referenced by  _writing in italics_ , with a quick note relaying its source, to show that they are not my creation.  Enjoy!

Summary:  Post Skye’s adoption, the team takes a weekend trip to Tony Stark’s Tower.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Little Surprise**

**Part 7 – Stark Tower, Chapter 1**

 

(Continued from SHIELD’s Little Surprise, Part 6-3: Interplanetary Adventures)

In utter disbelief at this, the *second* unplanned reunion with an Avenger in just as many days, Phil Coulson looks from Tony Stark to the woman standing next to him.

“Seriously?!” he asks her, shrugging.

“I couldn’t stop him!” she explains, sounding guilty and still somewhat out of breath.  “You know how often Tony Stark actually checks on his lawyers’ case schedules?  Never.  Ever.  Until last night,” she mutters.

“Yeah, funny thing,” ‘Iron Man’ states, finally finding his voice, and still staring hard at Coulson.  “I called my lawyers to schedule a conference, and they said, get this… ‘we’re unavailable tomorrow’.”  Tony scoffs, shaking his head.  “I know, right??  So naturally, I got curious about just what on Earth was so important that they’d blow me off.  And lo and behold I hack into their calendar and find them attending a hearing for a Phillip Coulson.”  Approaching steadily closer to the Director of SHIELD, Stark stops less than a foot away.  “Imagine… my surprise.”

Coulson finally manages a smile and shrugs.  “Yeah well… protocol… and stuff.  You know?”

“Actually, I don’t.  I’m not really the type to follow rules,” Tony points out.  Pepper Potts lets out a derisive laugh, then stifles it quickly.

Still grinning, Coulson waves at the famous Avenger.  “Hi.”

Stark shakes his head again, his eyes gleaming.  “What.  In.  The.  F…”

“Hey!” Coulson says warningly, quickly stepping back and covering little Skye’s ears with his hands.  “Watch it, please.”

Stark glances down at the tiny girl and blinks.  He points at her and says, “uh, what is that thing?”

Potts steps in close to her boyfriend and whispers, “that’s a child, Tony.  A rather cute one, in fact.  Hi, honey!” she waves and grins at Skye.

“Yeah, well, cute or not… cooties,” Stark quips, making a face and taking a small step back from her.

Skye had been looking curiously up at the newcomers, but now she frowns deeply and crosses her arms across her chest.  “I *don’t* has cooties,” she insists in a mutter.

Hunter grins and scoops Skye up.  “You know what, cutie?  You’re right.  You don’t have nearly enough cooties.  Maybe I should give you some more,” he teases, starting to tickle her sides.  “Take those cooties, and these… here, have more cooties!”

Skye shrieks and laughs, her hurt feelings dissipating immediately… 

Stark moves closer to Coulson again.  “So… how exactly is it that you’re here, apparently adopting some stray kid?  And you know, breathing?”  Tony touches Coulson’s arm, as if checking that he’s actually real.

Phil grins and raises his eyebrows.  “Got a few days to hear a story?”

“I have the time, sure.  Attention span, not sure,” Stark admits.  “Tell you what… how about you and your… ‘crew’ here come out to my ‘humble abode’ for a few days.  You guys can come stay at the Tower with me and give me the Cliffnotes version.”

Coulson looks to May, who looks somewhat hesitant at the idea, but shrugs as if to say, ‘up to you’.

“Uhh… just one thing,” Stark adds, pointing to the child still playing in Hunter’s arms.  “Does ‘it’ have to come along?” he asks with a grimace.

Several of the protective agents standing around give Tony a dirty look.

Pepper scoffs and smacks Tony in the arm.  “Be nice!”

“What?” he protests.  “My home isn’t exactly ‘child-proof’”.

While Coulson thinks that is a fair point, he isn’t exactly pleased with the man’s attitude toward Skye.  He says coolly, “if we go, she goes”.  He doesn’t elaborate just now on the fact that they literally *just* got the youngster back from an alien planet, and thus aren’t about to let her out of their sight anytime soon.

“I can help keep an eye on her,” Pepper offers, waving happily again at the little girl and making silly faces.

Stark sighs and looks again at the child.  He feels a strange warm ‘fuzziness’ as she laughs again, and is a bit disturbed by it.  “Ugh… all right.  Bring the small… person… along, if you must.  Meet you in two hours?”

Coulson blinks.  “Uh yeah, no.  We’ll need to stop by our base and pick up a few things.  And… we don’t all have flying metal suits, after all.” 

“Amateurs,” Stark teases, grinning.  He shakes Coulson’s hand, squeezing it.  “Wow… you really are real, aren’t you?”

Coulson shrugs.  “Last time I checked.  See you soon.  We can park our plane on your roof?”

“Sure thing.  Fly safe.”

Phil grins.  “You, too.”

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**30 minutes later…**

“But… I don’t wanna go somewhere.  I just got back.  I wanna stay home, and sleep here… wif you,” Skye whines to her new mother.  The little girl flops down on her bed, burying her face in Trip’s soft fur, on the fairy blanket that May had gifted her for her ‘birthday’.  She had missed all of this while she was on Asgard… and isn’t eager to go to yet another strange place.

May considers this as she packs a bag for her and Skye.  “I understand, bǎo bèi.  I do.  But the Director wants to spend some time with a friend that he hasn’t seen in years.  And this time, we will *all* go together.”  As she packs a few of Skye’s ‘Heroes of New York’ toys, she gets an idea.  She comes to sit next to Skye and hands her the Iron Man action figure.  May spends the next few minutes explaining to Skye that the man she had just met in the courtroom is in fact ‘Iron Man’.  The little girl gets excited, though she has a hard time understanding this, as he obviously hadn’t been wearing his suit. 

“So, you’re going to get to know Iron Man himself.  That is pretty special, bǎo bèi.”

Skye ‘zooms’ her Iron Man through the air and asks, “will we get to see him fly?”

May smiles slightly and shrugs.  “Maybe… if we’re lucky.”  May is trying to keep a positive attitude, though she had been rather annoyed with Tony’s ‘anti-child’ comments.  “And… I promise that wherever we sleep, you will be with me, all right?”

Skye brightens a bit at this and nods.  Appeased at last, she hops up and starts bringing May things to pack, including her blanket, several books, her small ‘laptop’, the mp3 player Fitz gave her, some toys… when the youngster tries to bring her an armful of games the agent puts her foot down. 

“Skye, no honey, we’re only going to be there a few days.”  At the dejected look that clouds Skye’s normally bright features May sighs and says, “you may bring one puzzle if you’d like.”

Once everyone is packed, they board the Bus for the flight to New York.  Coulson tells the team all about how he met Stark and describes some of his experiences with the Avengers.  The Director remains astonished that both he and the team have had interactions with two different Avengers in the last 24 hours.

Although Skye is now excited she is also extremely jet-lagged from her stay on a world with 33-hour days.  She manages to stay up just past her normal naptime, but then begins nodding off right before the Bus descends.  May carries the youngster, who is fighting hard to stay awake out of curiosity, out of the plane.  After a moment’s appreciation of the incredible view from the top of the immense skyscraper, the team is greeted by Pepper and led inside.  By the time they have entered however, Skye has gone completely limp, fast asleep with her head on May’s shoulder.

Tony Stark comes to greet them in the foyer.  “Welcome!  Welcome to my home.  It’s about damn time, folks.  Now, pleasantries and all that… who are you people?” he asks, as no introductions have been made.

Coulson introduces each of his agents, and they all step forward to shake hands.  When Fitz shakes Tony’s hand, the engineer’s eyes seem to gloss over a bit.  “Hi, it’s so nice to meet you,” he says, in a slightly higher pitch than normal.  “I’m a big, big fan of your work.”

Stark looks the young man up and down.  “You don’t look that big,” he quips.  “But thanks… I get that a lot.”

Pepper rolls her eyes and explains, “ugh… Tony’s not one for subtlety.  Or humility.”

At this point Coulson notices May shifting Skye carefully to her other arm, trying not to wake the child.  He addresses their host.  “So, Mr. Stark… is there somewhere we can put Skye down?”

Tony blinks, then grimaces.  “Well geez, I thought you all liked her, but I suppose I could call a vet…”

May frowns deeply, seething inside.  She is not enjoying Stark’s sense of humor.

Tony receives another slap on the arm.  “Ah… not what you meant.  All right then… Jarvis?” he calls out.

“Yes, sir?” responds his A.I. companion.

“How about you give our guests the grand tour of the Tower… beginning with the guest wing,” Stark instructs.

Fitz and Simmons exchange a slightly excited look.  An entire guest wing??

“Just stay out of the garage for now.  It’s a bit of a mess,” Tony adds.  He watches the agents leave, but prompts Coulson to hang back with him.  “You’ve seen the Tower.  Come on… fill me in on your miraculous resurrection and everything that’s happened since.”

With a small sigh, Phil nods and follows Tony to the spacious livingroom.  As he settles into a couch across from the man he thinks to himself, ‘all right, here we go again,’ and begins to tell his tale.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Jarvis’ pleasant British accent guides the team, minus Coulson, to the elevators then approximately 12 stories down the Tower.  There they exit the elevator into an enormous room that seems to encompass a large kitchen, dining room and livingroom.  While the rest of the Tower is somewhat ‘industrial’ in décor with lots of whites and silvers prominent, the cream-colored walls, soft lighting and warm-colored rugs lend a welcoming, homey feel to this place.  At the far end of this cavernous room begins a long hallway, with three doors on the left side and three doors on the right.

“Might I suggest, Agent May,” Jarvis begins, “that you and the child, Skye, take the last room on the right?  The adjoining washroom has a bathtub as well as a shower, and the room itself has an extra bed and somewhat softer décor.”

While May is rather impressed, she hides it well by simply nodding in agreement.  While everyone else tours the other rooms to pick out the one they want, May enters the recommended room and looks around. 

Two entire walls of the room are made out of thick, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows.  Before the door has closed behind May, Jarvis tints the windows to darken the room, then turns on a soft light by the large bed against the closest wall.  The bed is draped with a dark purple comforter and even has a teddy bear propped up against the many pillows.  Melinda can already see what Jarvis had meant about ‘softer décor’. 

She glances around the rest of the room.  Against the right wall is another smaller bed, with similar coverings.  In the corner of the windows stands a very comfortable-looking couch with a mahogany coffee table in front of it. 

The two walls that are not windows are perhaps the highlight of the room.  They seem to be comprised of giant screens, which Jarvis switches from a view of New York’s skyline to a black screen with light colored sparkles slowly moving across it.  As May gazes at this some soft classical music begins playing in the background.

Unable to hide her awe any longer, May’s eyebrows raise and she mutters a sincere, “thank you”. 

Skye stirs only slightly as May gently sets her down on the large bed.  Before May can pull away however, Skye grips onto her shirt and whines quietly.  Stifling a smile, May acquiesces and sits down close to rub Skye’s back.

A moment later there is a quiet knock on the door, and Jemma enters.  She smiles at May as she approaches with Skye’s blanket and Trip in her arms.  The two women lovingly cover the little girl with her soft blanket, and May manages to carefully extricate herself from Skye’s hold by offering up Trip in her place.  That done, they watch the youngster fondly as she snuggles up with her thumb in her mouth and drifts back into a deep sleep.

Both May and Jemma quietly walk out of the room to meet up with the rest of the team.  They begin their tour, heading for the top floors dedicated only to Tony’s tech research and development, or R&D.

As everyone exits the elevator, Jemma hangs back to walk alongside May.  After a moment of apparent careful consideration, Simmons says, “um… May?”

Agent May looks at the biochemist.

“I-I hope you don’t mind, but I just wondered… well, I wanted to ask…”

May gives Jemma a little look, wondering why the young woman is so nervous.  “Simmons, what is it?” she asks, in an uncharacteristically gentle tone.

Feeling somewhat encouraged by this, Jemma smiles and says, “okay.  So, there aren’t quite enough guest rooms for all of us to have our own.  Bobbi has offered to share with me, which would be fine, of course!  I think though that she might prefer to share with Hunter.  Anyway… I-I got rather used to sleeping with Skye on Asgard, and… well, I noticed the extra bed in your room… so, I wondered, if maybe…”

May considers this for only a moment before she says, “yes”.

Jemma blinks.  “Yes?  So, I may share your room while we’re here?”

May nods.  “Yes, Simmons, you may.”

Jemma smiles gratefully.  She moves forward as if to give May a hug, but catches herself and stops.  To her utter surprise, May suddenly moves forward and envelopes the young woman in her arms, squeezing her tight.

“Skye isn’t the only one we missed, or worried about, Jemma,” May says softly in her ear.

Simmons feels her eyes well up as she gratefully returns the hug.  “Th-thank you, May.  Skye and I both missed you, and we wanted to come home,” she adds, her voice full of emotion.

Not entirely sure what’s happening to herself, May even goes so far as to stroke Jemma’s hair gently.  “I’ll feel better having both of you close by,” she admits quietly.  Then, not used to being so open about her feelings, she gives Jemma’s delicate hand a light squeeze and moves off to rejoin the group.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

The tour of the enormous tower takes over an hour, and every agent is thoroughly impressed.  The agents have reconvened in the livingroom of the guest wing when Coulson finishes explaining, (in a very condensed way) all about being brought back to life.  Not much shocks Tony Stark, but these tales do.  He is actually quiet as they exit the elevator to rejoin the team, trying to digest all of this strange information.

As they enter the guest wing they find Mack and Fitz examining a shelf full of video games, Bobbi and Hunter checking out the variety of gaming tables, May working on a laptop and Jemma peering through a bookcase full of books.

Simmons checks her watch, then says with a soft smile, “well, Skye should be waking up soon.  I’ll just go check on her…”

“Oh, no you don’t, Jemma!” Bobbi scolds playfully.  “You just had Skye all to yourself for four whole days.  *I’ll* go get her.

At this, Mack frowns.  “Hey… I don’t think so.  Look,” he holds up his watch.  “Back home, it’s about 3:00, at which time she should be having an engineering lesson with me.  So, I’ll go get her.”

This logic prompts Fitz to jump into the debate.  “Ah, hang on… fact is, we’re not at home; we’re in New York, and it’s 6:00 here.  If we are going by our schedules, then as today is Friday, *I* get Skye until dinnertime!”

Watching Hunter now jump into the fray and argue his case as well, Stark turns to Coulson with a look of utter disbelief.  “Is this happening?  Seriously?”

Coulson just grins.  “We’re all kinda fond of Skye.”

May suddenly makes her way into the group of arguing agents.  “Enough!” she exclaims, and everyone ceases the argument at once.  “Since none of you can agree and don’t seem to want to share, I’m settling this.  *I’m* going to check on Skye.”

While everyone looks disappointed, they do their best to hide it, not daring to argue with May.

“Hey… maybe I can be of use here,” Stark interjects, to everyone’s surprise.  “Jarvis?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Would you let the agents know when their little ankle-biter has woken up?”

“Of course, sir.”  An almost silent whirring noise is heard, then Jarvis continues.  “It appears that young Skye is already awake and has made her way down to the garage.”

As several agents gasp quietly and start to mutter, Tony closes his eyes in frustration.  Naturally… the one room he didn’t want anybody in.

Jemma frowns and mutters, “that was a short nap”.

“Where is the garage?” Bobbi says at once, looking alarmed.  “I’ll go get…”

“No, no… allow me,” Tony says with a forced smile, still not wanting anyone to witness what a mess his workspace is nor see his latest projects and prototypes.  He turns and leaves the room.

“Jarvis,” Tony says quietly, as he heads down the elevator to the bottom floor.  “Have Ms. Potts meet me, will you?”

“Of course, sir.  We wouldn’t want you to have to face the ‘ankle-biter’ alone,” the AI adds.

Stark shakes his head.  “Keep it up, smart ass.  Give me reasons to disable your sarcasm protocols.”

“Apologies, sir.”

A moment later the elevator comes to a smooth stop and the doors open on the hallway leading to the garage.  Tony looks around, then blinks as he suddenly spots Skye through the thick glass door, sitting in the driver’s seat of his red Lamborghini.  “Uh, Jarvis… how did that child get through these security doors?” he asks, not sure whether to be incredibly irritated or incredibly impressed.

Stark’s closest though invisible companion responds, “it would seem sir that after several incorrect attempts, the child managed to enter the security code.”

Deciding to be both irritated and impressed, Tony raises his eyebrows.  “Huh…”

He enters the room and heads straight to the beautiful Lamborghini.  “So… what do you think you’re doing?” he asks Skye.

The little girl looks up at the still unfamiliar man and replies, “driving,” most innocently.  She illustrates this by turning the wheel and making ‘vroom’ noises.

“Uh yeah, I gathered that.  But what…”

“Are you really Iron Man?”

Stark stares at Skye, then sighs.  “Yeah.  I am.”

The youngster tilts her head, looking up curiously.  “Where’s your suit?”

“Didn’t feel like wearing it,” Tony says.  “I am a human being, with a life, outside of the suits, you know.”  He hears the elevator open behind him and spots Pepper approaching.  He points at the little girl in his precious car and tells his love, “security breach.  It’s on you”.

Pepper just rolls her eyes as she approaches.  “Well hi there, little one,” she smiles down at Skye.  “Now how did you get down here?”

“Yeah, and more importantly, how did you get *in here*?” Tony interrupts to ask.  “How’d you figure out my code?”

Skye looks up at the two adults and squirms a bit in her seat.  Biting her lip, she shrugs.  “I guessed.  I was looking for my family,” she says quietly, still getting used to the word/idea.

“You guessed?” Tony mutters, irritated again.  But Pepper ignores him and offers her hand to the little girl.  “Okay.  Your family is upstairs, sweetheart.  I’ll take you to them.”

Skye gives the horn on the Lamborghini a push, and jumps as it plays a loud but brief musical tune.  Giggling, she slides out of the car and takes Pepper’s hand.  The youngster pulls back from Pepper enough to look up at Stark again though.  Flashing him a smile she asks hopefully, “can I see you fly?”

Tony blinks, thinking that the child has a lot of nerve to ask for a parlor trick when she just broke into his garage, not to mention one of his favorite cars.  “No!”

Skye’s face falls and her eyebrows furrow.  “Why not?”

With a slight scoff, Stark responds, “well, first of all, my suits are currently in maintenance.  Second, what have you done for me lately?  Third, I don’t reward precocious little brats for breaking and entering.  Fourth…”

“All righty then,” Pepper says loudly, giving Tony a glare.  “Your family is pretty worried about you, honey, let’s go see them.”  She pats Skye’s hand gently, then guides her out of the garage and back to the elevator.

Stark just sighs and shakes his head before grabbing some wipes to cleanse his precious car’s leather seats…

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

When Stark reappears in the guest wing about an hour later, it’s to the sounds of shrieking and laughing.  Skye had told the agents all about the ‘bildshnipe game’ she had played with Thor on Asgard, and both Mack and Hunter have taken up the mantle of hungry beasts, chasing the youngster around the cavernous living room.  May and Coulson are seated in a corner together, pouring over some news reports that they suspect might be linked to Hydra.  Fitz and Bobbi are playing a friendly game of pool while Jemma watches amiably.

“Settling in nicely, are we?” Stark asks, pleased. 

Simmons looks up and smiles, approaching Stark from around the pool table.  “Oh yes, Mr. Stark.  Thank you so much for the hospitality.  You have a very… *very*… lovely home,” she adds, not used to such lush surroundings.

Coulson approaches now as well, with a slightly sheepish look.  “I apologize for Skye, that she made it into your garage.  She’s very curious and loves to explore.  We’ve talked to her now about not leaving this floor without one of us…”

Mack suddenly catches Skye and lifts her into the air, making the little girl shriek with extra enthusiasm.  Tony grimaces and rubs his ear as she continues to laugh loudly.

“Yeah well… no harm, no foul, I guess.  Though did you know that she somehow hacked my security code?!”

May’s head jerks up from the report about a bombed building and blinks.

Looking at Stark in disbelief, Coulson says, “what?  You’re kidding…”

“Oh, I wish I was,” he admits, not pleased that his security is apparently so obsolete that a six-year old could bypass it… literally.  “I have no idea how she managed it.  She said she *guessed*.”

Both Coulson and May turn to look at the little girl, who has just scrambled under Bobbi’s legs to hide under the pool table.

“Guess I’ll be doing some upgrading,” Stark says with a shrug. 

As if sensing her parents’ eyes on her, Skye looks over to the small group.  Upon seeing Stark, she crawls back out from under the table and dashes off down the hall, disappearing into her guest room. 

Coulson raises his eyebrows at Tony.  “Did you do something to scare her?”

Stark puts his hands up to indicate innocence.

A moment later, Skye has reemerged and is running over to Tony with a grin.  “Here… look!” she says brightly, holding up her Iron Man action figure.

Coulson chuckles.  Stark looks at it.  “Huh.  That’s supposed to be me?”

Skye nods and tries to press the figure into his hand.

Tony grimaces again.  “Uh no, no, no… _I don’t like to be handed things_.”

Skye blinks and tilts her head as she does when she’s especially curious or puzzled.  “Why?”

May approaches now, and puts a gentle hand on Skye’s back.  “It’s okay, bǎo bèi.  He sees it.”

“Yeah, neat,” Stark mutters dispassionately.  “Anyway… who’s hungry?”

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Dinner is a pleasant affair.  Tony leads everyone to the most beautiful dining room they’d ever seen, with a modern design almost all in silver, soft ambient lighting and a thick glass tabletop.  The walls once again are all thick windows, and there are bushes of blue stargazer lilies in every corner.  Just as Jemma was about to ask how the flowers can flourish so well indoors, Stark presses a button on a remote and the ceiling opens from a seam down the middle, sliding completely apart to reveal a perfectly clear night sky.

Murmurs of appreciation are heard as everyone is seated.  Soft music begins playing in the background as Stark explains, “I had no idea what you all like to eat, so I had a buffet set up.”  He casually waves across the room to several large tables covered in silver heating trays.

As such, everyone finds endless amounts of food to their liking, and chats happily as they eat.  Stark brings Coulson over to the buffet at one point and dishes him up some schwarma.  “ _We all went to this little hole-in-the-wall schwarma place after the battle of New York.  You missed out then, having been stabbed through the heart_ and whatnot, so I made sure to have some here for you to try,” he explains.  Coulson gives Tony a genuine smile of gratitude and graciously eats a large helping of it.

When dinner is done, both Jemma and Fitz hurry to offer to help clean up, but Stark scoffs and says simply, “don’t be ridiculous.  I have people.”

Coulson approaches him again and says, “so… now that the suits are more incredible than ever, what have you been working on?”  He smiles at the puzzled look on Tony’s face.  “I watched the news and read the reports on Sokovia.”

Stark shrugs as he sips a beer.  “Oh, this and that.  I’m working on creating a stealth suit, using reflective panels.  Oh, I have been tinkering with my cars, too.  Your ‘Lola’ inspired me to install flight capabilities to some of my babies,” he adds with a grin. 

Pepper looks up over her glass of wine.  “Yeah, Tony keeps asking me to go on a ‘test drive’ with him.  I told him he is out of his ever-loving mind.”  Everyone laughs…

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

After dinner the team gets to enjoy a swim in Stark’s indoor, heated, Olympic-sized pool.  Coulson and Stark sit in a nearby sauna, where Phil shares their very recent encounter with Thor.  While everyone else swims, May and Mack relax in the hot tub, which is large enough for 20 people. 

At one point, Skye wanders over to the hot tub, wanting, as usual, to try everything that she sees anyone else doing.  Right before she tries to step in however, May opens her eyes and says, “Skye… no, honey.  Hot tubs are for grown-ups only.”

Skye’s face falls and she looks like she wants to argue the point, but just then Bobbi hurries over and scoops up the little girl.  “Excuse me,” she teases.  “I’m not finished swimming with you yet!”  With that, she tosses Skye playfully back into the pool, just a foot away from Fitz who laughs and grabs up the youngster.  May smiles softly as Skye resurfaces giggling, and feels infinitely grateful that there are so many people to keep an eye on her bǎo bèi and help her stay out of trouble.

Although everyone is aware that Skye had adjusted somewhat to the 33-hour days on Asgard and that the child is jet-lagged both from that sojourn as well as the time change traveling to New York, when May sees Jemma stifle a yawn she takes it as a cue that Skye’s bedtime is approaching as well.  She gives the youngster a five-minute warning, but despite the advance notice the child is not happy when it is time to leave the big pool.

“Skye… time’s up.  Come on.  It’s time for a bath, then bed,” May tells her adopted daughter, approaching the pool side with a towel.

Skye frowns.  “Nooo… I’n taking a bath!” she announces, then giggles as she splashes the water.

Stifling a grin at her clever, albeit naughty, child, May shakes her head.  “Nope… it’s not a bath unless soap is involved.  Come here, please.”

But Skye, the stubborn little imp that she is, responds by swimming a bit further away.

May frowns and gives Skye a warning look.  “What do you think is going to happen bǎo bèi, if I have to come in there and get you?”

Biting her lip, Skye tries, “you’ll swim wif me?”

May purses her lips and shakes her head.  “Skye Daisy Mayson… out.  Right now.”

Contrary to May’s intentions, the youngster feels a happy little thrill at hearing her new name.  She just isn’t ready to comply.  She takes a deep breath and plunges under the water, determined to stay there until May changes her mind.

The little girl’s plan doesn’t work out well though.  Hunter scoops her up and walks to the edge of the pool with her squirming in his arms.  “It’s definitely not a good idea to disobey your mother, cutie,” he admonishes her quietly.  Reaching the edge he holds Skye up in offering to May.  “Looking for this?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.  Thank you,” May says curtly, accepting the naughty child.  She sets Skye down in front of her, leans down over her wayward daughter and shakes a finger at her.  “When I tell you to do something Skye, you do it right away.  You do not argue or disobey,” she scolds.  She then wraps an arm around Skye’s waist, bends her forward and administers three light swats to the little girl’s wet bottom.

“Owww… no,” Skye whines, squirming.  When May lets her go again she whirls around, her hands flying back to protect her backside.

As May looks into the tiny girl’s eyes welling up with tears, she says quietly, “if you disobey me, you will get a spanking.  Do we have an understanding, little one?”

Skye nods with a sniffle.  “Yes ma’am,” she adds dejectedly.

Melinda returns the nod.  “Good.  Now… are you ready for a bath?” she asks, wrapping the youngster in a towel.

“Uh-huh,” Skye replies sadly, then wraps her arms around May’s neck.

The new mother sighs softly and picks Skye up.  She finds it interesting that Skye always immediately seeks comfort and affection after she’s been punished.  May always expects the child to be upset with her… but the little girl never is. 

Looking back into the pool, May adds, “Simmons… you too.”

Jemma blinks and looks up at May, puzzled.  “Ma’am?”

Agent May nods and beckons the young biochemist over.  “I saw that yawn,” she says simply, smirking.

Simmons smiles back sheepishly, muttering, “you caught me”, and swims over to the steps to get out.

Melinda pats Skye on the back and whispers, “you see that?  Simmons obeyed me right away.  Let her be a good example for you.”  May then hands Skye a towel and prompts her to go give it to Jemma, which the youngster willingly does.

“Thank you, darling,” Simmons says brightly as she accepts the towel.

The trio heads upstairs and May orders Jemma to go shower in Bobbi’s room while she bathes Skye.  Once that is done, May takes a quick shower while Jemma helps Skye with brushing her teeth and changing into pajamas.  By the time all of that is completed the rest of the team has returned from the pool and Skye gets to say her rounds of good night.  When she gets to Coulson, the child hesitates and shifts somewhat nervously.

“What is it, sweetie?” Coulson asks her gently, looking concerned.

Skye just bites her lip and looks into his eyes.  She’s debating with herself whether she should say, ‘good night, Director’, or ‘good night, Daddy’. 

Phil picks up the youngster and plants a kiss on her cheek, then asks, “are you all ready for bed?”

Skye nods, trying to summon up the courage.  Finally though, she finds that she’s still not quite ready.  “Good night,” she says simply, giving him a big hug and feeling disappointed.

“Good night, sweetie,” he replies softly.  “See you in the morning.”

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Only five minutes into reading a bedtime story to Skye, May notices that while Simmons has completely passed out in the smaller guest bed, the little girl next to her is still wide awake.  Skye squirms and interrupts frequently to ask questions about the story, which is pretty typical.  When Skye starts repeatedly trying to hop out of bed however, May puts her foot down.

“Bǎo bèi, you get your naughty bottom back into bed,” the weary mother warns.  “It’s past your bedtime.”

“But I’n not tired!” Skye counters truthfully.  The various jet-lags that the child has recently gone through have completely thrown her off her routine.  She ducks below the bed and begins rifling through the bag with her various toys in it.

With a low groan, May rolls over to the edge of the bed and looks down at her little ward.  “Skye, so help me, if you don’t get back into this bed…”

But Skye is already crawling back up onto the bed.  However, her arms are now filled with her entire ‘Heroes of New York’ action figure set.

May, who is quite exhausted herself, grumbles and takes Skye’s chin in her hand.  “Bǎo bèi… look at me.”

Skye looks up with wide eyes, looking sweetly innocent.

The stoic agent peers intently into those very awake brown eyes, then sighs.  “You’re not going to be able to sleep, are you?”

Skye smiles and shakes her head.

May nods, trying to figure out what to do.  She can no longer ignore her own serious sleep deprivation.  Finally, she says, “Jarvis?”

“Yes, Agent May?”

“Is anyone still up?”

“Yes, ma’am.  Sir is up and in his garage, and Agents Morse and Hunter are conversing in the living room.”

“Thank you,” May says, genuinely grateful.  She looks again at Skye and sighs.  “You stay here and play quietly for a moment.  Don’t wake Jemma.”

Skye nods her understanding, making her miniature Iron Man fly above the bed.

May plants a kiss on Skye’s forehead, then heads to the living room seeking a reprieve.  She finds Bobbi and Lance cuddled up on the couch together.  “Morse, Hunter… would you two be willing to wear out a certain wide-awake little girl?” she asks.

Bobbi grins.  “Of course,” she says eagerly.  Hunter agrees as well, but less enthusiastically.  He loves Skye, but he had just been starting to get… intimate… with his ex.

May nods and goes to fetch the youngster.  She leads Skye, whose arms are laden once again with all her superheroes, out to the living room and hands her over.  “Thank you,” she mutters gratefully to the agents.  “Just bring her back to our room when she’s ready to sleep.”

“You got it,” Morse agrees, sitting down on the floor next to Skye and all her toys. 

May stops to stroke Skye’s hair gently as she turns to head back to the room.  “Be good, bǎo bèi.  Don’t stay up too late,” she adds ironically, shaking her head at the poor jet-lagged child.

For a fraction of a second, Skye considers replying with, ‘okay, Mommy’.  She really wants to!  But the little girl is afraid to… almost as if worried that she might ‘jinx’ things.  She nods quietly instead.

“Good night.”  May heads eagerly back to bed.

A full two hours later, Skye is finally beginning to get tired.  It’s a good thing too, as both Bobbi and Hunter have a ton of sleep to catch up on as well, and Hunter is becoming irritable because of it.  When Skye asks for the 12th time if they can go swimming again, Lance finally groans and responds, “*no* Skye, and if you ask that question one more time I just might give you a spanking”.

Skye’s hands go back behind her and she takes a few steps away, staring at Hunter with a hurt expression on her face.  Bobbi blinks and frowns at him.  While the repeated question had been getting annoying, Morse doesn’t think that Hunter should threaten to punish Skye for… well, being Skye! 

Under these looks Hunter immediately feels guilty.  “Well… I’m sorry.  I’m just exhausted,” he admits.

“Then go to bed,” Bobbi retorts quietly.  “Don’t take it out on her.”  She moves forward and picks the little girl up.  “It’s ok honey,” she coos softly.  “Don’t mind him.  He’s just grumpy because it’s past his bedtime, too.”

Skye wraps her arms around Bobbi’s neck, grateful for the comfort.  When Hunter hears a sniffle from the little girl he feels even worse.  “Aww, come on cutie… I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean it.”  He approaches and rubs the little girl’s back. 

When Skye chances a timid glance up at him, Hunter lifts Bobbi’s hair and hides behind it.  A moment later he pops back out from behind the long blonde locks and gently says, “boo!” 

Skye manages a giggle, and the actual energy in the room changes, becoming lighter and warmer.  Morse sighs contentedly as she hugs the youngster to her, and Hunter chuckles, every hint of annoyance vanishing.

“Okay… welI, I’m going to bed before I earn myself a time-out,” Hunter says sheepishly, causing another giggle from Skye.  “Good night, beautiful ladies.”

“Good night,” they respond, and watch him exit.

Bobbi grins and plants a light kiss on Skye’s nose.  “Well, it’s just you and me, munchkin.  I finally get you all to myself!”

At that moment however, Skye tries hard to hide a yawn.  Morse smiles softly, but decides not to deliver the child back to May until she’s sure the youngster will go right to sleep.  She sits down on the couch and cuddles Skye close to her.  “Honey?”

Skye looks up.

“I’d like to ask you something.”  Bobbi proceeds carefully, cautiously.  “I bet… that when you were at the orphanage… you probably used to imagine what it would be like to have a family.  Am I right?”

Skye twirls Bobbi’s hair around her fingers and looks deeply into Morse’s eyes.  She’s curious how Bobbi knew that.  Looking somewhat uncomfortable with the question, she slowly nods.

Bobbi smiles reassuringly at her.  “I thought so.  Can you tell me… what did you imagine?”

Skye looks a bit nervous and cuddles up closer, but at Bobbi’s kind smile and encouraging nod, the youngster begins to describe her former dream.  In it she had two parents that loved her; the mother was a doctor while the father was a teacher.  They were both very kind, ‘pretty’ and smart, and they never got mad or yelled.  In her vivid imagination she lived with these parents in a nice home with a backyard and had her very own bedroom with lots of toys.  They would take her to many places, most of which she had only seen on tv… the zoo, the beach, camping, and on picnics.  They would take her to school and pick her up every day.  Skye would know her birthday and it would be celebrated, and holidays would be spent together with aunts and uncles and cousins and lots of food. 

Once Skye gets talking about it, Bobbi realizes just how much thought the little girl has given all this.  The words and ideas come quickly in a practiced manner.

Morse lets the child speak freely, only nodding her understanding and smiling her encouragement once in a while.  After several minutes in which Skye has also discussed foods they’d eat together and presents she would get, the youngster can barely keep her eyes open.

Cradling Skye to her, Bobbi gently says, “wow munchkin, that all sounds so nice.  I guess that… what you have with us is a bit different from all that.  Do you still like it?” she asks softly, nuzzling the little girl.

With a tiny smile that reveals a very cute dimple in Skye’s right cheek, the sleepy youngster replies, “uh-huh… I love it”.

Overwhelmed with love and joy, Bobbi swallows hard and kisses Skye’s little cheeks before carrying her off to bed at last.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

The sleep that both May and Jemma so desperately needed that night is rather abruptly interrupted at about 3:30 in the morning. 

“NO!” cries a scared, squeaky voice into the mostly dark room.  “No, no… lemme go!”

May and Simmons both sit bolt upright, trying to figure out what’s going on.  May states quickly, “Jarvis… light,” and turns to the little girl thrashing around next to her as the room’s light steadily grows brighter.

Stumbling out of her own bed, Jemma approaches quickly as May attempts to awaken the thrashing child.  “Skye?  Skye, honey, shhh… wake up,” May says gently, lightly stroking her daughter’s cheek.

“Oh, darling,” Simmons murmurs with concern, sitting on Skye’s other side. 

With a loud sob Skye’s eyes finally open, and they are filled with fright and tears.  Those tears begin to flow down her cheeks as she slowly blinks and looks around her.

“Shhh bǎo bèi… it’s all right,” May says softly, stroking the little girl’s hair.  “You’re safe, here, with us.”

But when Skye turns to look up at May she gives a quiet sob and sits up quickly, scrambling away.  May blinks.

“Honey, what…?”

“No!” Skye cries, sliding right off the bed and taking several steps backwards.  “You walked away.  You walked away!” she shrieks, beginning to sob in earnest.

As May looks stunned at the child’s reaction to her, Jemma quickly slides off the bed as well and approaches Skye.  “Skye, darling… it’s all right, it was just a dream, baby,” she tries to reassure her, but Skye is looking around the room in confusion, still not fully aware of where she is or what’s going on.

“Skye,” May begins clearly.  “I’m right here.”

Simmons kneels in front of Skye and cups her small face in her hands.  “Darling, I think you had a bad dream… that’s all.  It wasn’t real, all right?  What’s real is that you are here right now with me and with May, and you’re safe.”

Laying a gentle hand on Skye’s arm Jemma can feel the youngster trembling a bit.  Skye’s crying slows down though at the agents’ reassurances, and she stares back and forth between Simmons and May.

“Bǎo bèi… come here,” May says softly patting the bed next to her, then holding out Trip in offering.

After a moment’s hesitation Skye moves back toward the bed, rubbing her eyes with her fists.  (May smiles softly… Skye always does this when she’s upset, and while it’s sad, it’s also adorable.)  The little girl sniffles as she climbs back up onto the bed and accepts Trip into her arms.

Simmons follows and sits down as well, while May asks, “can you tell us about it, honey… your dream?  What happened?”

Squeezing Trip tightly to her, Skye takes a shaky breath before speaking.  Her small features screw up in thought, as she tries to remember.  “A… man grabbed me, and he was taking me away.  He squeezed me tight, and it hurt.  N I tried to get down, but he wouldn’t let me.”  A few more tears fall down her cheeks as she turns to May.  “And, and you were there and I yelled for you… but… you just walked away.  Why did you walked away??”  The little girl sobs again as she looks at May with such hurt in her eyes.

May scoops Skye up and pulls her into her lap.  “Baby, I am right here.  Look at me,” she prompts, gently lifting the child’s chin.  “You see me, right?  And you feel my arms around you?  You can hear my voice?”  Skye nods, still crying.  “Bǎo bèi, I am right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”  Melinda pulls Skye in close, thinking hard.  She thinks she knows where this dream is coming from.  Although Skye seems perfectly content and well-adjusted, her recent abduction to Asgard is clearly plaguing the child, even if only subconsciously.  The fact that May, her new mother, hadn’t come to her rescue is clearly causing the child distress as well.

Agent May strokes Skye’s cheek gently as she watches the youngster hug Trip tight.  She then gets up and moves to her suitcase, pulling a document out of the front pocket.

She returns to the bed and once again pulls Skye into her lap.  “Bǎo bèi… this is your adoption certificate,” May states softly.  “Do you know what this means?”

Skye’s sniffles subside and she even manages a little smile.  “It… it means I’n adopted.”

“That’s right,” May smiles back.  “And do you know what *that* means?”

Skye squirms slightly, looking up into her new mother’s eyes.  “We’re a family?”

Jemma grins and blinks back tears as May nods.  “Yes… exactly.  And, it means even more than that.”  At Skye’s quizzical look Melinda adds quietly, “it means forever, Skye.  I know that you have stayed with many people in the past, and that you had to get used to moving around a lot.  But when you’ve been adopted, bǎo bèi… that is forever.  We will always, always be your family.  We will not walk away, and we won’t let anyone take you away.”

Skye looks like she wants to argue… after all, Lady Sif had taken her away!  She stops herself though, thinking, ‘but… oh yeah, I wasn’t adopted yet then’.  The youngster stares at the certificate, curious as to whether it really has such ‘magical powers’.  After a moment, her gaze returns to her mother’s.  “Promise?” she asks quietly.

May nods.  “I promise.”  She strokes Skye’s cheek lovingly and adds, “now, let’s get our minds on much more pleasant things.  Why don’t you tell me more about your new flying horse?”

Suddenly beaming, Skye slides off the bed and digs once more in her bag of toys.  She reemerges with ‘Frigga’, and moments later the trio is watching the beautiful horse soar gracefully around the room.  Skye settles back into May’s lap and tells her all about Frigga, as well as the real winged horses that she saw on Asgard and those she read about.  As she talks on and on about the happy subject, her fatigue starts to catch up with her again.

“And… and we saw a couple of the boy ones in the stable, but not… not girl ones,” the little girl explains slowly, finally drifting back off to sleep.  Her next sentence trails off as her eyes close completely and she snuggles up closer to May.

“Mm-hmm,” May replies softly, rubbing Skye’s back as she watches the child lose her battle to stay awake.  When Skye’s breathing becomes even and her grip on Trip slackens slightly, both she and Simmons sigh softly at the same time.

“Well… I suppose that was to be expected,” May states quietly.  “I think I might schedule an appointment for Skye with Andrew.  She clearly has a lot of fears and insecurities still.  And he is fantastic with children,” she adds, more to herself than to Jemma.

Jemma nods.  “That sounds like a wonderful idea,” she agrees in a whisper.  Smiling supportively, Jemma places a gentle hand on May’s arm before leaning down to plant a feather-light kiss on Skye’s cheek.  As the young woman rises to head back to bed, the small white horse flying around catches her eye.  She smiles as she offers up a hand, and beams as Frigga lands gracefully upon it.  She carries the wondrous toy over to Skye’s bedside table, and whispers, “please, watch over the little one,” before setting it down.  Frigga whinnies quietly and nods her majestic head before curling her legs up underneath her and lying down, eyes on the sleeping child.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

During breakfast the next morning, it seems that Skye has no recollection of the night’s events.  She is perfectly happy, energetic and talkative as usual.  Mack, Hunter and Fitz are invited to ‘go play’ in Tony’s upper floors.  The mercenary, engineer and mechanic are thrilled to get a chance to go check out the tech, and all three of them leave their plates half full. 

Jemma and Bobbi are granted permission to go explore the lab in depth, and they too disappear from the table rather eagerly.

At this point, Stark approaches Coulson and May.  “And… I’d like to borrow the kid for a few minutes, if that’s cool.”

“For what, exactly?” is May’s quick reply, not eager to leave Skye alone with a person who clearly has no skills interacting with children whatsoever. 

Tony forces a smile at May.  “Well, I’ve changed the code on my security doors to the garage.  I want to see if her getting past them last night was a fluke, or… something else.”

At this, May’s curiosity is peaked.  She too would like to know the answer to that.  Just how much of Skye’s hacking skill is innate?  May glances over at Skye just in time to see the youngster steal an abandoned biscuit from Fitz’ plate and stifles a grin.  She then meets Coulson’s gaze and gives a small nod.  Stark claps his hands together once, with enthusiasm. 

“Excellent.  I won’t keep her long,” Stark says nonchalantly, whistling to get Skye’s attention.  “Hey… kid.”

At this, May seethes once again.  After all, Skye is not a dog.

The little girl does look up at the sudden noise however, looking slightly guilty with the stolen biscuit held up to her mouth.  “Fitz left it,” she insists, shrinking a little in her seat.

“Yeah, that’s great,” Stark says distractedly.  “Come with me.  We’re going down to the garage again.”

Skye blinks and slides off of her chair, quickly stuffing the rest of the biscuit in her mouth.  “Eneyegetadivegen?” she asks, her little cheeks stuffed full.

“Skye,” both Coulson and May admonish quietly. 

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, bǎo bèi.  Swallow, then you can talk.”

The youngster chews quickly and swallows, then asks, “do I get to drive again??”

Coulson blinks and looks at Tony, who puts his hands up in innocence.  “I didn’t let her drive… I wouldn’t do that.  Not until she’s at least eight or so,” he teases, giving Skye a wink.

May smirks as Skye giggles, and Coulson kneels down next to his daughter.  “Ok sweetie.  Listen up.  You’re going to go downstairs with Mr. Stark, and I expect you to be on your best behavior.  Stay with him, and don’t touch anything without permission, okay?”

Skye nods with a smile up at her father.  Her innocent look and the knowledge of her unquenchable curiosity makes Coulson second guess this plan, however.  “You know… maybe one of us should come with you guys,” he suggests, straightening up.

Stark cringes somewhat.  It’s not that he doesn’t trust SHIELD, and he certainly trusts Phil Coulson, but now that his designs have been stolen, handed to his enemies and put to horrific uses more than once, he finds himself extra protective and proprietary of his work.  “She’ll be fine.  I’ll get Pepper to join us, too, how’s that?”

The two new parents glance at each other, and May gives a little nod.  She knows that they need the time to dig deeper into the recent bombings that they suspect happened under Hydra.

“Great!” Tony exclaims.  “Come with me, rugrat.”

Skye sighs as she walks over to Tony.  “My *name* is Skye,” she informs him, in somewhat of a huff.  Coulson smiles proudly, glad that his little girl seems naturally inclined to speak up for herself.

 

Stark calls for Pepper to join them and steps into the elevator with Skye.  He allows her to push the button for the ground floor when she asks eagerly.  As the elevator slides smoothly downwards Skye looks up at Stark and attempts to slip her hand into his.

Tony looks down in surprise and blinks, pulling his hand away.  “Um… didn’t we already have the cootie talk?”

With a deep frown, Skye crosses her little arms across her chest instead.  “I don’t has cooties!”

At that moment there is a soft ding as the elevator comes to a stop.  The doors open to reveal a smiling Pepper, looking welcoming and professional as usual.  At the expression on Skye’s face though, her smile falters and she kneels down with a look of concern.

“Hey there… what’s the matter, sweetheart?” she asks gently.

With a slight huff, Skye keeps her eyes on the ground and replies quietly, “he’s being mean to me”.

Lifting her head suddenly to aim a sharp look at her lover, Pepper is quick to reassure the child.  “Oh honey, I’m sure he’s just teasing.  *Right, Tony*?”

The tone in Pepper’s voice leaves Tony with no doubt that his response right now will likely determine whether he spends tonight in his own bed with her, or on the couch alone.  “Of course,” he insists.

Pepper nods approvingly and smiles softly at Skye.  “You see, cutie?  He’s actually quite nice… he just has trouble showing his true feelings.  Trust me,” she adds with a hint of exasperation. 

Looking somewhat sheepish, Stark quickly tries to change the subject.  “Yeah well… so kid, I changed my security code.  Let’s see you figure it out now,” he challenges her, looking rather haughty and pleased with himself.  Either he’s going to see that Skye’s success last night was a random coincidence, or he’s going to learn a valuable trick… from a six year-old.  He’s quite confident that it will be the former.

Both Stark and Pepper watch as Skye approaches the clear keypad beside the glass door.  The youngster looks carefully at the numbers, moving so as to gaze at the pad from all different angles.  Despite his recent confidence, Tony stares intently as if determined to learn the secret behind a magician’s trick.  

Once Skye has examined the keypad from many different directions, she raises her left hand and types in a series of four numbers.  The keypad instantly turns red for a few seconds, indicating an incorrect attempt.  Tony grins triumphantly and leans against the wall with a slight smirk. 

When the keypad goes back to its normal white light again, Skye gives it another attempt.  She presses the same four numbers, but in a different order.  The result is the same however, and the child is once again denied access. 

Tony sighs with mock disappointment.  “Oh well, nice try kid… it’s a tough thing to guess…”

But with a patience uncommon in such a young child, Skye simply waits quietly for the red glow to disappear so that she can try once more.

Stark meanwhile turns to Pepper.  “So… last night.  Did you tell her the code?  Maybe it was Jarvis, he has really been getting…”

“Uh… Tony?”  Ms. Potts interrupts, pointing at something behind him.

“What?”  Stark turns around and his jaw drops open an inch as he suddenly sees Skye happily pull the door open and run through, eager to explore some more.

After blinking several times, Tony mutters, “well… I’ll be damned”.

Pepper chuckles at the look of indignation on her lover’s face and quickly moves to follow Skye.  “Skye!  Come back, cutie,” she calls to the little girl, beckoning her over.  Skye sets down a strange-looking metal gadget she had just picked up from a workbench and runs back over.  “Well… you did it!  You’re so clever!  Can you tell us how you knew which numbers to push?” she prompts gently, guiding Skye back over to the keypad.

Growing steadily more fond and trusting of Pepper, Skye nods happily.  She moves about 8 inches to the right of the keypad and looks carefully at it from a side perspective.  Then she points and says simply, “those numbers were touched”.

Pepper nods slowly, though she isn’t sure what the little girl means by that.  Moving to the side to see the surface of the keypad from the same angle as Skye however, realization suddenly blooms across Stark’s face like a lightbulb switched on.  He groans and rolls his eyes before quietly muttering, “of course… my fingerprints”.

Tony smacks himself in the forehead and turns to look into the bemused expression on Pepper’s face.  “By looking at it from the side, she could see my fingerprints on the glass.  Naturally they are only present on numbers used in my code… so then she just had to try until she got them in the right order,” he explains.

“Wow,” Pepper whispers, impressed.  “Well, like I said before… clever!”

Tony can’t help but agree, nodding.  He frankly can’t believe that he didn’t consider that simple flaw in his security system.  “Okay fine”, he states suddenly, looking down at Skye.  “Mystery solved.  And I guess that might even deserve a treat.  Come here, kid.”

Stark leads the way back into his garage, saying as he walks, “Jarvis?  Give me a little something to work to.”

Led Zeppelin begins playing at once, and Stark bobs his head in time to the music as he turns back to Skye, sizing her up.  “So kid… what’s something you want to do that those agents don’t let you do?” he asks.

Pepper blinks, looking nervous at where this might be leading.

Skye thinks for a moment, biting her lip.  “Um… eat lots of candy?”

Tony gives an unimpressed shrug and pulls open a drawer from his workbench.  Two seconds later he is handing Skye an opened Snickers bar.  “Done.  But give me a challenge… think bigger”.

Skye cheers and happily takes a bite of the chocolate bar, then looks around, thinking hard.  Her eyes fall onto Tony’s red Lamborghini and they light up at once.  “Drive Lola!” she replies, with a nervous giggle.

“Ah… yeah, that’s more like it!” Stark praises with a mischievous grin and a nod.  “Ok… let’s see what we can do about that.”

Stark moves over to a table and pulls up a holo screen.  Skye watches in awe as the genius quickly begins drawing up schematics.  “Hey, Dum-E,” he calls over.  The rickety droid lifts its arm and turns to face Tony.  “Make me a smoothie, then look through this stuff, will you?” he points to a large pile of metal parts.  “I need engine parts, framing, thrusters, brakes and so forth.  And so help me, if you make another mess like you did last week, I’m turning you into scrap.”

Dum-E shrinks dejectedly and Skye gives Tony a sharp look… one she’s already learned from her mother.  Crossing her arms, she states, “you know, you should be nice to him.  ‘Specially’ cause you want him to do stuff for you.”

Stark scoffs at the cross little girl as Dum-E turns on a blender.  “Oh yeah?” he says loudly, to be heard over the noise.  “Well, I created him.  He owes me his ‘life’, literally.  That’s why he should do stuff for me.”

In truth, Stark really likes the droid.  So much so that when _his mansion in Malibu was destroyed, Tony returned to the ruins and fished out his remains._ He ended up missing the awkward droid so much that he reconstructed him, even leaving in some of the annoying mechanical (and character) flaws _._

The blender turns off and Dum-E turns to pour the green smoothie into a nearby cup.  The droid is distracted however when Skye pats him on the ‘back’ and says soothingly, “there, there.  You’re a good robot!”

Seemingly touched by this, Dum-E makes an appreciative noise and turns toward Skye suddenly, resulting in the entire smoothie missing the cup and spilling onto the floor.  Tony rolls his eyes and gestures to the mess.  “You see?  He’s useless,” he adds in frustration.  “A bit like you.  You can go now,” he tells Skye, irritably.

“Tony!” Pepper scolds, a scandalized look on her face.

Skye looks up at Tony, hurt.  “But… but I wanna help.”

Stark scoffs again, throwing a towel at Dum-E so it can clean up.  He even goes so far as to mock her little voice.  “’But I wanna help’… help?  You’re like three years-old.  You can’t help.  Now scram.  Go bug your ‘parents’.”

Little Skye looks suddenly livid, and even goes so far as to stomp her foot.  “I’n NOT three, I’n six!” she shouts.  “And I’n a good helper!  I help Mack and Fitz alla the time!” she adds truthfully.  Then with tears welling up in her eyes the youngster turns and runs toward the security doors.

“Skye!  Oh honey…” Pepper gives Tony the dirtiest look she can muster, then says, “Jarvis, lock down the elevator.”

“Yes, Miss Potts,” the AI responds agreeably.

There is a click and then an upset pounding as Skye discovers that she can’t open the elevator doors.  Pepper crosses the distance between her and Stark in only three long strides.

“Now you listen to me, Tony Stark, because I’m only going to say this once,” she demands in a dangerously quiet voice.  Tony even thinks he sees her skin flash orange/red for a moment, before he remembers that _she has been cured of the Extremis that briefly infected her_.  “Right now, I am content as a career woman, but I have not given up the idea of someday having kids.  You are being an absolute jerk to that innocent little girl.  If you truly despise children this much, and this is how you treat them, then you and I are not going to work.  We should just end this, now.”

For the second time in as many days, Tony is rendered speechless.  He and Pepper have had their fair share of spats, but for her to give him an ultimatum like this…

“I’m serious.  I most likely will want kids someday, and anyone I am in a relationship with must at least be open to the idea.  So unless you’re prepared to change your tune, and I mean *right now*, you and I are done.”

Stark pales and looks from Pepper to the small child still struggling with the elevator door and back again.  “Wow… I-I didn’t know that, Pep.”  Tony straightens up again and asks sincerely, “what do you want me to do?”

Pepper glances back at Skye, who has started to cry, and says, “first, you apologize.  Then, you make it up to her.”

Stark blinks.  “Make it up to her?  I’m already going to build her a car,” he points out, trying not to whine.

“You were planning to do that anyway… more to enjoy the challenge than to do something nice for her, no doubt,” is Pepper’s quick reply.  “Go one better.  Figure out something that will mean a lot to her, and do it.”

Stark’s instinct is to throw his hands up in exasperation, but at another ferocious look, he decides not to tick off his clearly determined lover.  He just sighs softly and nods.  “Yes, ma’am,” he replies, ironically.

Pepper refrains from rolling her eyes, though it’s difficult.  She walks out to the hallway and says gently to Skye, “Hang on sweetheart.  Tony has something he would like to say to you.”

With a frustrated sniffle, Skye stops trying to pry the doors open.  She glares back at Tony for a moment, then crosses her arms and hangs her head again.

Stark sighs as he feels anger coming from both ‘women’.  He approaches and stops a few feet from Skye, then proceeds to say, “hey rugrat.  I’ve been informed that I’m not being very nice to you.”  At an even icier glare from Pepper, Tony quickly goes on.  “And I guess it’s true.  I don’t mean to be a jacka… uh… a jerk.

 Anyway kid… I’m sorry.”

Stark suddenly claps his hands together.  “And I know exactly how to make it up to you.”

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Stark escorts a quiet but curious Skye into the elevator and up to the top floor of the Tower.  The moment that they step out of the lift, Fitz comes hurrying up to Stark. 

“Mr. Stark!  Listen, I want to thank you for allowing us to check out your tech… and… I was wondering if you’d be willing to offer us some advice for security upgrades for both our plane and our base?”  Leo says all of this quite fast, still utterly in awe of the genius engineer.

Tony considers refusing, but then recognizes this as helpful for his plan for Skye.  “Uh… sure.  Why don’t you give me a tour of your plane and you can run some of your ideas by me?” he suggests.

Fitz beams as if Christmas has come early.  “Yes… brilliant!  Thank you!”  He turns and happily leads the way outside to the plane.

“But… but what about my treat?” Skye asks quietly.

Tony hangs back a bit from Fitz in order to reply to Skye.  “We’ll do it right after I help Fitz.  Make sure you grab a warm coat… you’re going to need it.”

Skye is more curious than ever now, and nods eagerly.

When they enter the Bus via the cargo ramp, Skye quickly runs to her and May’s bunk and grabs a new purple winter coat she’s recently been given.  She’s ready to go in about 30 seconds, but as it turns out, Fitz needs Stark for over half an hour, to discuss his plans and get Tony’s approval and recommendations.  Skye is easily bored after a few minutes, and takes the opportunity to wander the plane a bit.  She had really missed it while on Asgard.

She runs into the kitchen area and helps herself to a few cookies from the pantry.  Then she goes to Command and pretends to use the holotable until Fitz leads Stark there.  Then she wanders out, her thoughts returning to getting to drive Lola and Stark’s fancy red car, and she gets an idea.  She heads off up the plane and sneaks into a small room that she is never allowed in alone.  With Fitz so engrossed in brainstorming with Stark, she gets to spend about ten minutes there without supervision…

Finally, she hears her name being called and quietly sneaks back out of the room, hurrying to rejoin the two men.  Fitz is in the midst of thanking Tony profusely, but soon he scurries off to discuss Stark’s advice with Mack, and Tony and Skye are left alone once again.

“So rugrat… are you ready for something special?” he asks.

“Yes!!” Skye exclaims, feeling like she’s been waiting for hours.

“All right then… you’re not afraid of heights, are you?”

Skye thinks about that, then shakes her head.

“Okay… put on your coat and stand back,” he instructs her, stepping back several paces himself. 

As Skye is almost finished pulling on her coat, she hears a whooshing sound and turns just in time to see several colorful pieces of metal flying by.  They head straight for Tony and start attaching themselves to him, quickly transforming into his latest, and greatest, suit.

Skye gasps loudly and her eyes go wide.  “Wow… you… you really *are* Iron Man!” she exclaims excitedly, when his suit is complete.

“That’s right,” he says proudly, feeling a warmth and exhilarated joy that he attributes to wearing his best suit.  As soon as Skye finishes pulling her coat on, Stark picks her up and sends a gentle electrical current through her, effectively binding her to him to prevent any… ‘accidents’.  “All right.  Put these on,” he prompts, slipping a pair of goggles over her eyes.  “And… hold on tight,” he says, as he suddenly walks forward… right off the edge of the roof.

12 floors down, a new mother gazes out the window just in time to see a red and gold figure fall past.  Clutched to the red and gold goes a flash of dark purple that has May on her feet and crossing the 10 yards to the window in about two seconds flat.

May’s heart in her throat, she grits her teeth and whirls around, screaming out, “COULSON!  PEPPER!!”  What follows this is a string of expletives that would make any sailor blush.

A familiar British voice sounds in Stark’s helmet… “uh sir?  Agent May seems a bit disturbed that you are taking her daughter for a flight…”

Tony sighs and mutters back, “great.  I’ll be making it up to her next,” over the sounds of little Skye’s whoops and delighted cheers.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**10 minutes later…**

Tony lands back on the roof only to be greeted by his upset lover and the entire SHIELD team.  Much to his luck, Coulson had managed to demand May’s weapons from her and calm her down just slightly before they ascended to the roof, or she may very well have incapacitated him already.  Even unarmed, Melinda is incredibly deadly and currently looks ready to attack.

“Tony?!  What were you *thinking*?!” Pepper shrieks.  But when she sees his raised eyebrows along with the exhilarated expression on Skye’s little face, she thinks she knows…

Skye is completely oblivious to the very tense scene happening around her.  The moment that Stark undoes the current connecting her to him, she runs forward excitedly, tripping over her own feet in her haste and falling into Coulson.  She giggles when he catches her, and squeals, “YAYYY!  That was SO GREAT!!”

Coulson sighs with relief and picks Skye up, looking her over.  “Are you okay, sweetie?” he asks quietly.  May has moved to them as well and is pushing Skye’s disheveled hair back and gazing into the little girl’s windswept face.

Still giggling and positively shaking with excitement, Skye nods happily.  “Yeah!  Can we go again??”

“NO,” reply Pepper, May, Bobbi, Mack and Coulson all at once.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**Epilogue**

 

An hour later, Agent Melinda May is dusting off her hands with a satisfied smirk as she walks out of ‘Iron Man’s’ enormous, state-of-the-art training room.  Never one to turn down a challenge, Stark had accepted a supposedly friendly contest from her… a 10-minute sparring bout in which he could even wear a suit.  He wore a rather smug grin as he chose one of his less advanced, though still highly impressive Marks, thinking that he should ‘take it easy’ on May.  Once the two were standing in the ring, ready to face off, however, May purred, “remember this the next time you consider taking a six year-old along on a stupidly dangerous stunt… without her mother’s permission”. 

Tony recognized the red flags and opened his mouth to sincerely apologize (finally), but May suddenly rushed at him with a battle cry that sent chills down his spine.  No more than one minute later Stark was seriously regretting his rash, egotistical decision to accept the challenge from the protective, quietly irate mother.  By the five-minute mark Tony had exhausted all of his suit’s weaponry and even half of its power, and was now trying desperately to appease the incredible warrior.  May even thought she heard him whine, “I made sure she wore a coat!” before she knocked his helmet clean off with a fierce spinning kick.

Now, at the end of the bout, ‘the great Iron Man’ is sitting in the middle of a pile of metal, the remnants of one of his suits.  Nursing his throbbing head, Tony Stark sighs and mutters to himself, “do not even seemingly endanger the kid of high-level SHIELD agents.  Got it.”  He shakes his head, and nearly chokes on something.  A moment later he is staring down at the tooth he has just spat into his own hand.  Lesson learned.

 

**To be continued…**

**Author's Note:**

> Update 11/29/16: Due to feedback from a very kind native Mandarin speaker, I have changed the term of endearment that May uses for Skye. 'Qianjin' has become the more appropriate 'bǎo bèi'. Sorry for any confusion!


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